1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a auto play device for playing music (hereinafter referred to as an auto play device) based on a prememorized timing of a change of a performance of a piece of music, more particularly it relates to a device for correcting a timing of the music playing information by which a timing of a change of a performance of a piece of music is corrected to a timing occurring at a predetermined interval.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1A illustrates the timing correction operation performed by a known timing correction device. In FIG. 1A, the music playing information is corrected by a time length of an 8th note, which time length corresponds, for example, to a time length of 48 clock pulses (hereinafter referred to as CK). Note, the time length of 1 CK corresponds to the time length of a unit of time which represents a standard timing for processing the music playing information. Referring to FlG. 1A, a head timing of a bar is defined as "1", a timing which is the time length of an 8th note from the timing "1" is defined as "2", a timing which is the time length of an 8th note from the timing "2" is defined as "3", a timing which is the time length of an 8th note from the timing "3" is defined as "4", and so on, and timings between the timings "1", "2", "3", "4", . . . are defined as "1-2", "2-3", "3-4", "4-5", . . . The timing of the change of the music playing information between "1" and "1-2" is corrected to "1", the timing of the change of the music playing information between "1-2" and "2-3" is corrected to "2", the timing of the change of the music playing information between "2-3" and "3-4" is corrected to "3", and the timing of the change of the music playing information between "3-4" and "4-5" is corrected to "4". Accordingly the timing of the change of the music playing information is precisely corrected to a timing of an 8th note, and thus such a timing correction device provides a convenient and more exact playing of music.
Nevertheless, in practice a player does not always play at an exact timing, but often intentionally shifts from the exact timing by, for example, a "preceding shift" or a "subsequent shift",to produce delicate musical nuances.
Accordingly, a problem arises in that a musical performance becomes mechanical if the timing is corrected too exactly.